Does unconventional monetary policy affect inequality? Evidence from Japan

Ayako Saiki and Jon Frost

Applied Economics, 2014, vol. 46, issue 36, 4445-4454

Abstract: Inequality has been largely ignored in the literature and practice of monetary policy, but is gaining more attention recently. Here, we exclusively focus on the impact of unconventional monetary policy (UMP) on inequality. We look at how the recent UMP in Japan affected inequality, using household survey data. Our vector auto regression (VAR) results show that UMP widened income inequality after 2008Q3 as the Bank of Japan (BoJ) resumed its zero-interest rate policy and reinstated UMP. This is largely due to the portfolio channel. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to empirically analyse the distributional impact of UMP. Japan's extensive experience with UMP may hold important policy implications for other countries.

Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (104)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2014.962229 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Does Unconventional Monetary Policy Affect Inequality? Evidence from Japan (2014)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:applec:v:46:y:2014:i:36:p:4445-4454

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RAEC20

DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2014.962229

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Economics is currently edited by Anita Phillips

More articles in Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().